Leonard Cohen - Songs from a Room (1969)

Somehow even darker and more melancholy than Songs of Leonard Cohen, Songs From a Room is an emotionally claustrophobic set produced with austere beauty by Bob Johnston. The arrangements are eerily spare, heightening the impact of Cohen's weary vocals; the intermittent and idiosyncratic appearance of a Jew's harp only adds to the record's overwhelming sense of disorientation. While not as uniformly strong as its predecessor, Songs From a Room does contain a number of Cohen's finest compositions, including "Bird on the Wire," "Lady Midnight," and "Story of Isaac."